Page 76 of Primal Hunger
Erin pushes up onto her elbows to stare down at me, a smile brightening her features. “Really?”
“Yes, little human.” I nod. “Name it, and it is yours.”
I force my sadness to the side when she kisses my snout.
Whatever it takes to protect her, I will do it, even if it kills me.
I’ll do anything for her.
Erin fallsasleep in my arms, and my heart thuds out a hollow beat.
Talking faded and we simply held each other in front of the fire until her breathing evened out and her eyelids fluttered shut.
Keeping her cuddled close, I shift us both to the bed of pelts, drawing the warmth around her to ensure she’s comfortable. She looks even more fragile wrapped in the thick furs, her pale skin nearly shining in the dim light. With one of my claws, I tuck a strand of silver hair behind her ear.
She wants to go home.The reminder stabs me in the chest as I watch her, wondering how many more moments we will have like this before she is gone forever.
Many things have changed from days ago. For the first time in my life, I’m afraid—afraid of losing her, afraid of going back to my old existence—and the realization rocks me to my core.
I don’t want her to leave, and I would do anything to get her to stay.
Even though this world is not hers, and every part of it is designed to tear her fragile human flesh to pieces, I want her.
To be with me.
Towantto be with me.
I curl my body around hers, tugging her ass until she is fit snugly against my front, and listen to the sound of her slight snores. For such a tiny person, she makes a whole lot of noise, and this is something I want to get used to. Something I feel I will miss the moment she leaves, despite the chaos she brought to my existence.
We are from two different worlds and cannot exist together.
It’s impossible.
Right?
It feels less like the truth and more like a convenient excuse as to why helping her escape is the right thing to do when it goes against my every natural instinct. Yet I care about her too much to risk her life and make her stay with me. No matter what I want.
I draw in a breath colored with her scent, gollilock and flowers and mint, the combination unique to her.
When hadIchanged?
At some point I went from being the blood-thirtsy, ravenous beast I’d been for so long to something more. Aside from the familiar hovel around me, I barely recognize my life. Life as I know it is different, and I am different.
And it’s all because of Erin.
A growl rumbles in my chest as I—once again—run through the events that led me here.
How much easier would it have been to simply eat her when I first found her in the woods and be done with it? Yet all this feels like it happened for a reason. Like it wassupposedto happen. Like something bigger than us, some cosmic force, made sure our paths crossed that night, manipulated the circumstances to bring us together, all so that I could meet Erin.
Our threads of fate are woven together, but it doesn’t matter.
I have to let her go.
As much as I want to keep her here with me, to protect her, to use her, letting her go is the right thing to do.For her.It’s the only way I can completely ensure her safety, to keep her happy.
Keeping her as a pet was always a silly dream. And keeping her asmorethan a pet? As a… partner?
It’s impossible.
